Reading a different way

In my home town, there are two streets that go from one end to the other. They are both one way streets, but when I was in high school, these streets were two way streets for 1/2 of the length of the streets. It was a difficult thing to change my direction of travel and change my thinking when the city changed the streets into one way the entire distance of the streets. Many times I found myself driving the wrong way on the one way street, and I was not the only one!

I believe this is the situation with the church. We have been reading the scriptures one way for so long that to change that way of thinking is almost impossible. We like it. We are comfortable with it. Why should be change? Well, I think maybe we have been reading the wrong way and that is the reason to change. As I continue to rethink the Christian faith, along with Brian Mclaren and others, I find it exciting to think of new possibilities.

As Mclaren indicates, from the time of the Roman take over of the church, we have been reading and making our theology by looking back to Jesus through other people and how they understand Jesus. Think about it, we read theologian's understandings of Jesus and think that is the way we are supposed to understand him. Our grasp of Jesus is one mediated by Luther through Augustine through Paul, but what if that is the wrong way? What if we are driving the wrong way on a one way street?

What if the plan of God was to understand Jesus by reading the scriptures from Genesis through Exodus through the prophets to Jesus? What if Jesus did not fulfill the prophets words but lived the prophets words? Doesn't that make more sense? To understand Jesus in the context of his own religion and his own background and his own life? Instead of trying to make Jesus fit with a theological system that has been tainted with other philosophical and theological garbage and allow Jesus to speak to us on his own terms, in his own way, and through his own love of God? It just seems so natural to me!

I think I have been driving the wrong way on the streets of life. Maybe we all have!

Tearing Down and Building Up

I am reading a book by Brain Mclaren. It is called "A New Kind of Christianity." This book is over due. I have read Mclaren's books before, but this book particularly speaks to my soul. I finished the book this afternoon and started re-reading it this evening because I what to digest exactly what he is trying to propose.

It seems to me that Mclaren is speaking for many in the church who see how the soul of the Body of Jesus has been stolen. It happened a long time ago when the movement that took upon it the name of Jesus of Nazareth also took upon it the organizational structure of the Roman Empire. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan have spoken of this in some of their books, and the more I read about this, the more I see it is true.

What started as a movement to help people see how the Roman rulers were missing the point, i.e. sinning, how people were following the wrong path and needed to turn around, i.e. repenting, turned into something alien to its founder. Rome was violent and Jesus was non violent. Rome was turned in on itself and Jesus was turned out to others. Rome worshipped power and financial gain and sex, and Jesus worshipped the LORD.

The church even took into itself the Greco-Roman theology--Neoplatonism mixed with a little of Aristotle. The immortality of the soul, the fall, heaven or hell are products of Greek philosophy and theology and not Hebraic. I have always wondered about this being since my undergraduate studies in Greek reasoning and Philosophy. What we need is a revolution in Christian thought, and it is on the way. I am excited to see what happens next!

Learning to Dance in the Rain

It seems like every time I turn around, there is another fire to put out. I am on a volunteer board of directors for a local non-profit organization, and every day, someone at the center has a crisis! We need a new day care worker. We need money. We need money! WE NEED MONEY! I wonder why so many people say no when asked to be on a board of directors?

It seems to be raining metaphorically every where. Someone needs a new car to get to work-light rain. Someone is having problems as a single parent-thunder storm. An infant in the NICU needs, well you can only imagine--hurricane! I find many people like to hole up in their houses when it rains. Many people do not like the problems that attend a rain storm. People like to stay dry. People like to watch the rain as it pounces on the ground. People like to let others take care of the weather and only worry about their problems and their concerns and their immediate family. People like to wait for the storm to pass before coming back outside into the bright sun shine.

I don't mind rain. In fact, rain is good for the earth. We need rain to have the growth of the fields that I so enjoy in the Northern Great Plains. Without rain and storms, we would not have the bounty of the Earth. Don't get me wrong, I am terrified of major storms, but a good down pour is beautiful.

I think we need to learn how to dance in the rain. I think we need to waltz in the snow. I think we need to Fox Trot in the wind, Rumba in the sleet, and Tango in the slush, that way if we get tangled up we just tango on! Life is full of storms and unless we learn how to dance, we sit on the benches and let life stream on by. Sure the rain can be dangerous, but so can in activity. This winter has been terrible. Storm after storm causes my mind to wonder if green grass will ever show up again, but I trust God. God will again bring resurrection from death. God will again bring heat from cold. God will again give me the strength to continue.

Do you hear the music? Let's dance!!

The Art of Peace

As I continue to work on myself, to find a way of life in this crazy world, the way of peace draws me! Some people would say that I am drawing from many different traditions, but I find truth in many places. The way the American Indian cares for creation, the way Eastern martial arts cares for creation, the self, and others, and the way a Christian does all of these things and works for peace just makes sense to me. I think Jesus would look to many different ways of being in the world today and bless them. Paraphrasing Carl Rahner, I find truth in these words: God reveals God's self to each person in a way that that person can understand God's self.

Morihei Ueshiba says "one does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train," which is similar to what Jesus says, "the Kingdom of Heaven has come upon you."



To be a disciple of Christ for me means to practice the Art of Peace. Peace with myself, with my family, with creation, with others, and most importantly with God through Jesus. How are we doing with this practice?

The Stoning of Jesus

I just finished watching "For The Bible Tells Me So," a documentary about how the "Religious Right", Focus on the Family, and fundamentalist evangelical Christians have abused the God of love and the Bible by stating homosexuality is an abomination to God. First off, I want to thank a lovely young woman who used to watch my children at seminary for recommending the video to me. Rachel, the video made me cry and angry at the same time.

I cried because people of good will, people who have loved God and continue to do so, use God to discriminate, to ostracize, to exclude others from the church because of who they love. I cried because people of good will, people who have loved God and continue to do so, have stood by and let others discriminate, let others ostracize, let others exclude people because of who they love. I cried because God cries at this.

I am angry because, as people of God continue to fight, people continue to die. I am angry because, as the Bible continues to be used as a weapon, people continue to die. People die because of who they are, because of who they love, and because of who God created them to be. For centuries, God and the Bible have been used in ways that are contrary to God and the Bible. Anything that is not of love, anything that is not about giving life, anything that makes people an outcast, demeans people, or dehumanizes people DOES NOT come from God! Even parts of the Bible that say God kills or that God hates or that God destroys IS NOT from God, it IS NOT part of the Bible that is authoritative for God's people today! Those parts of the Bible come from the people who wrote the Bible trying to justify their killing, their warring, they extermination of others. IT IS NOT FROM GOD!!!

When we let this happen, we become the people of Nazareth who forcibly take Jesus out of the town to the tip of the ravine and try to stone him. We are people who try to destroy God. God is a God of love. God is a God of liberation. God is a God who wants nothing more than for us to help the Divine help others live and love and share. Do we stone Jesus more than help him?

HOMOdox?

With a storm raging outside my window right now, I am reading blogs. I love to find something new when I am spending time on the computer. Sometimes I find a new Tae Kwon Do move or a new movie that I have not seen or even a new word. That is what I found today as I roamed the infinite space that we call the Internet.

There is a movement within Lutheranism that calls themselves orthodox Lutheran. If we look at the word orthodox, we find from the Greek that orthos means "right, true, or straight" and doxa means "praise or worship." So the word orthodox really means right, true or straight worship, but it also means "having the right opinion." (I get this information off of Wikipedia. I know that source is not academic, but for our purposes here, it will suffice.)

As I read the blogs, and I cannot remember which one this comes from, but I found something new about these so called orthodox Lutherans. They are really not orthodox. They do not want right worship or having the right opinion, but this movement is about having the same opinion. Hence, they are not orthodox but HOMOdox. Homo means same and and that is what they want. The only thing these Lutherans want is for everyone to believe and think the same way, or I should say think and believe their way.

I don't know about everyone else, but the diversity of theological thought is a good thing. We have diversity in the natural world and it helps us understand more about the world. Therefore, diversity in theological thought helps us understand more about the divine. Having a robust dialogue about the divine gives us all a better understanding of God and our relationship with God. But the key word in that last sentence is dialogue. We must have a two way conversation where each person is willing to come away from that conversation changed. If we do not have a two way form of communication, then it is just dueling monologues and we all lose. Moreover, if we were all the same, if we all looked the same, acted the same, thought the same, think how boring the world would be!

So, every time I see the word orthodox, I will begin to be skeptical!

Lutheran CORE--What a joke!

During this wretched cold snap, I have tried to stay warm by wrapping up in a blanket and reading blogs that really have no meaning at all. It is amazing what one will do when one is really cold! Two of the blogs that I try to pay attention to are the Word Alone web page and Luterhan CORE. I do this not because I want to join, but because one should stay abreast of what the dark side is doing.

I find it funny that a group who in 2002 were complaining about not going along with tradition in the fight against Called to Common Mission now are using tradition as a basis of their argument. In 2002, Word Alone was complaining that the Historic Episcopate was a tradition and not part of scripture, although their displeasure with CCM was not about the HE but about homosexuality! Today, Word Alone is saying that tradition teaches that homosexuality is wrong. Seems like they want their cake and eat it too! How can they have it both ways?

Anyway, the blog Spirit of a Liberal tells a compelling story. Basically of the 10,500 ELCA churches, 135 churches have taken votes to leave the ELCA. Of those churches, 38 have failed to reach the needed 2/3 vote to leave. Therefore, 97 churches have decided to leave the ELCA.

Now that shows just how influential CORE really is. What a joke!